Social Media as Social Science Data

A methodological toolkit for social scientists to create their own infrastructure for collecting and analyzing social media big data.

Steven Lloyd Wilson (Author)

9781108733779, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 17 November 2022

198 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1 cm, 0.28 kg

'Social Media as Social Science Data should be the go-to resource for anyone motivated to produce knowledge using Twitter data.  It is clearly written, covers the three main types of analysis available with tweets, and provides useful code samples.' Zachary Steinert-Threlkeld, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, University of California – Los Angeles

Social media has put mass communication in the hands of normal people on an unprecedented scale, and has also given social scientists the tools necessary to listen to the voices of everyday people around the world. This book gives social scientists the skills necessary to leverage that opportunity, and transform social media's vast stream of information into social science data. The book combines the big data techniques of computer science with social science methodology. Intended as a text for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers in the social sciences, this book provides a methodological pathway for scholars who want to make use of this new and evolving source of data. It provides a framework for building one's own data collection and analysis infrastructure, a toolkit of content analysis, geographic analysis, and network analysis, and meditations on the ethical implications of social media data.

1. Why social media matters to the social sciences
2. Getting started with social media data
3. Content analysis of social media data
4. Geospatial analysis of social media data
5. Network analysis of social media data
6. The ethics of using social media data.

Subject Areas: Databases & the Web [UNN], Political science & theory [JPA], Social research & statistics [JHBC], Research methods: general [GPS], Data analysis: general [GPH]